1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a pre-wiring device allowing a logic function such as an inverter function or a star-delta start function to be created between at least two multi-pole contactors intended to be used particularly in electrical control equipment of motors.
2. Discussion of the Background
The use of a pre-wiring device to create a logic function between several multi-pole contactors is well known. For example in the case of an inverter function effected on two three-pole contactors, this pre-wiring device must connect two by two the input poles of the two contactors by direct connections and must connect two by two the output poles by connections by making a permutation of two contactors relative to the input order. Such a device thus simplifies the task of installers by offering them a pre-wired function, ready to be connected to the contactors and which may be created from terminal bars installed upstream and/or downstream of several contactors located one next to the other.
Nonetheless these pre-wiring devices are generally adapted to the size of the contactors for which they are intended so as to enable easy and safe mechanical and electrical connections. This therefore involves different mechanical components for each size of contactor. The purpose of the invention is to offer a pre-wiring device which will make it possible to connect in an identical way to several sizes of contactor which will reduce accordingly the number of different terminal bars to be designed and manufactured and which will also simplify component stock control by the manufacturer and by the installer.
According to a characteristic of the invention, the pre-wiring device to create a logic function between at least two multi-pole contactors located side by side includes an upstream pre-wiring terminal bar coated in insulating material, installed above the contactors and fitted with metal pins able to be inserted in the housings of the upstream wiring terminal blocks of the contactors. This upstream terminal bar includes on its lower face stop means which come into support on the upper plane surface of the upstream terminal blocks of a first type of contactors and which are shielded on a second type of contactors the upper face of which has adapted notches. The pre-wiring device also includes a downstream pre-wiring terminal bar installed under the contactors, constituted by a comb coated in an insulating material and equipped with teeth from which emerge, along a direction approximately perpendicular to the plane of the downstream terminal bar, metal pins able to be inserted in the housings of the downstream wiring terminal blocks of the contactors. The teeth of this downstream terminal bar come into support against the lower plane face of the downstream terminal blocks of a first type of contactor and in notches provided on the lower face of the downstream terminal blocks of a second type of contactors.
Other characteristics and advantages will emerge in the following detailed description with reference to embodiments given as examples and shown in the appended drawings in which: